Kumiko Nikaido
Vindication...sweet.
Poseidon, the remake of the 1972's "The Poseidon Adventure", thrills with impressive water deluge effects and explosions thanks to director Wolfgang Petersen. This is from the guy that gave us the likes of Das Boot, In the Line of Fire, Outbreak, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, and Troy.
Once that "rogue wave" hits the ship, then wet hell breaks loose and the body count rises to tidal wave proportions. Too bad everything else sinks with the ship, mainly the plot and character development.
The film moves by at a ready clip like all disaster movies, but Poseidon fails to make any one character stand out and care for. Sure you've got guys like Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, and Richard Dreyfuss on board....but when there's barely anything to their respective characters, and when they go through routine and cliched life-or-death scenarios (some even come off as silly!), and when they start to perish one by one, then that's just unexciting.
Poseidon really goes through the motions as any disaster flick, and you'll heart will pound like it's taking a nap since the suspense and tension is shockingly minimal. Some will die, some will survive.....you know that life raft will come to play by the end of the movie. Pretty much all the budget went into crafting the interiors of the ship Poseidon, the optical and explosion effects, and all that water.....yes, there's lots of water.
Wolfgang Petersen thrilled us with this prior efforts, but in this one his soul got caught with the deluge and sank with the ship. Poseidon simply goes through familiar territory with no new depth or substance.
Catch this remake on DVD, or you're expecations will certainly be water-logged if you see this in the theater.
